Stacking Multiple Guitar Tracks Without Getting Mushy

la szum

la szum

Axe-Master
Any tips or tricks out there for stacking multiple guitar tracks (medium to high gain) without them
getting all mushy?

Also, what does anyone think about a limit to stacking? How many tracks tend to be enough and
how many do you think becomes too much?

Thanks! :)
 
More is more, but if you're not careful, it can sound muddy.
  • Try to get by with less gain: Distortion that sounds good single tracked can sound muddy multi-tracked.
  • Pan the tracks: Separating them in the stereo field can help avoid unpleasant build-up.
  • Try to vary the tones a bit: If you quad track the same tone, it can get murky, but varying each track a bit can help keep them distinct.
  • EQ is almost always needed when multi-tracking your rhythm guitars: The 200-400 range can can clogged and usually requires some cutting.
 
GlennO said:
More is more, but if you're not careful, it can sound muddy.
  • Try to get by with less gain: Distortion that sounds good single tracked can sound muddy multi-tracked.
  • Pan the tracks: Separating them in the stereo field can help avoid unpleasant build-up.
  • Try to vary the tones a bit: If you quad track the same tone, it can get murky, but varying each track a bit can help keep them distinct.
  • EQ is almost always needed when multi-tracking your rhythm guitars: The 200-400 range can can clogged and usually requires some cutting.
Click to expand...
All excellent points. I would add
  • Use less reverbs/delays than you would use with a single track.
  • Vary the tone/pickups/parts/EQ/pitch range - dramatically between tracks
 
More ideas:
  • after setting up EQ and panning, route them to a common stereo bus and compress as a group
  • try both stereo compressors and "dual mono" compressors and see which one sounds better (e.g., if there is something loud on the R side, a stereo compressor will compress both sides - sometimes that sounds like the stereo image moving back and forth)
  • try the compressed bus in parallel
  • automate guitar levels to accentuate fleeting passages
  • decide to feature different sounds/guitars in verse / chorus so it's not all the same levels all the time and/or build up the layering throughout the song
  • automate your low cuts to add low-end back in when the guitars are the only thing playing. Take low-end out again when other instruments come in
  • invert L/R when routing to a stereo reverb so a guitar panned right-ish has it's reverb left-ish
  • hard pan a guitar and add a slapback echo to the other side. Not tight like a Hass (30ms) but still short. Adjust level to taste. You'll have a guitar that sounds mostly on one side, but doesn't leave the other side out of balance from a frequency perspective
 
Yeah too much gain makes things mushy. This is magnified when layering multiple takes. Your timing has to be dead on as well. Any variation in the attack timing will blur together when stacked and it will sound more mushy.
 
Awesome! Appreciate all of the replies. :)

Mostly aware of and keen on the recommendations. Just hoping for a
subtle clue or key (or secret!) to make the process more efficient and the
end result better off. Looks like I found a few to try. :)
 
Lots of bases are covered above.

Not sure this will apply, but for live looping I like to set an amount of decay for each track as it is overdubbed. So you're first track will be at some nominal volume, then when the next track is laid down that previous track has its volume decreased by some preset amount, and on and on.

Bottom line is to vary sound/tone between tracks, which pretty much sums up much of what is stated above.

Final thoughts, plan out the tracks to be in different octaves when practical (sometimes you don't want that though) and as your # of tracks increases then less is typically more for each track (simplicity).

Have fun with it!
 
Use less gain, sometimes a lot less, it is cumulative. Pan opposites, use different guitars on different pickup positions and use diferent amps.
 


2 clean guitars-hard left-hard right
2 dirty guitars, not much gain-hard left-hard right
2 dirty guitars slightly louder, not much gain-hard left-hard right
Too much gain gets mushy
 
Boz5150 said:


2 clean guitars-hard left-hard right
2 dirty guitars, not much gain-hard left-hard right
2 dirty guitars slightly louder, not much gain-hard left-hard right
Too much gain gets mushy
Click to expand...


Sounds great but mastered way too hot. You damn near blew up my system!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meters on my mixer are not even moving. Just pegged as high as they will go.
 
TSJMajesty said:
Post a recording so it can be assessed further!! ;) (Seriously, I'd love to hear what you've got going on.)
Click to expand...

As soon as I figure out what I got going on. :)

Trying to record/capture everything (full band with vocals) live in the room I have. I may be barking up
the wrong tree and it could be a futile exercise. It's just something I want to do based on my own
preferences, and my outdated "old school" principles.
 
la noise said:
As soon as I figure out what I got going on. :)

Trying to record/capture everything (full band with vocals) live in the room I have. I may be barking up
the wrong tree and it could be a futile exercise. It's just something I want to do based on my own
preferences, and my outdated "old school" principles.
Click to expand...
You need a "silent stage." haha
 
fractalz said:
More ideas:
  • after setting up EQ and panning, route them to a common stereo bus and compress as a group
  • try both stereo compressors and "dual mono" compressors and see which one sounds better (e.g., if there is something loud on the R side, a stereo compressor will compress both sides - sometimes that sounds like the stereo image moving back and forth)
  • try the compressed bus in parallel
  • automate guitar levels to accentuate fleeting passages
  • decide to feature different sounds/guitars in verse / chorus so it's not all the same levels all the time and/or build up the layering throughout the song
  • automate your low cuts to add low-end back in when the guitars are the only thing playing. Take low-end out again when other instruments come in
  • invert L/R when routing to a stereo reverb so a guitar panned right-ish has it's reverb left-ish
  • hard pan a guitar and add a slapback echo to the other side. Not tight like a Hass (30ms) but still short. Adjust level to taste. You'll have a guitar that sounds mostly on one side, but doesn't leave the other side out of balance from a frequency perspective
Click to expand...

Just wanted to thank everyone for the advice! Really trying to do as much as I can
on the front-end so that the different guitar parts/playing complement each other
going in.

So much great advice that I would have never thought of on my own. Appreciate it!! :)
 
Most I ever track for Rock is 4, but there's a good bit of editing and EQ going on then the clean Guitars are just doubled L&R

Love these kinds of threads, everyone giving killer advise!!
 
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